With the Philadelphia Orchestra joining the New York Philharmonic this summer as a resident orchestra, the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival boasts a symphonic lineup that no other summer series in the country can top.
The revered, 107-year-old orchestra from the City of Brotherly Love will make its Vail debut Saturday evening with the first of six concerts over eight days in the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater. It is the ensemble’s first Colorado visit since 1986.
“All you’d get were kind of exciting adjectives from me at this point,” said James Undercofler, the orchestra’s president. “We’ve been treated with such respect and warmth at every step of the way, so we’re so looking forward to it.”
The orchestra and festival signed a one-year agreement to perform this summer, with Bravo! having an option to renew the contract for two more years if the concerts prove successful and the relationship works out to everyone’s satisfaction.
“Both parties will see how it goes,” Undercofler said. “And so far, so good, let’s put it that way.”
If famed conductor Leopold Stokowski forged the Philadelphia Orchestra into a major ensemble, Eugene Ormandy gave it an indelible international identity during his 44-year tenure and established what has come to be known as the “Philadelphia sound.”
“Our sound is essentially a string sound,” one of the music director’s violinists once said. “Ormandy insists on depth, fullness and richness, and we give it to him.”
That unmistakable quality became familiar to thousands of listeners across America. Boosted by the introduction of the long-playing record in 1948, the ensemble became the country’s most recorded orchestra.
Double bassist Robert Kesselman, a member of the orchestra since 1987, argues that there is still a Philadelphia sound, even if it is not exactly the same as what Ormandy’s loyal audiences heard decades ago.
“I think it definitely still exists,” he said. “I think there is a richness in the type of tone that the strings get – a full sound. It’s a kind of way of phrasing that is natural and easy.”
While the orchestra’s international prestige arguably remains as high as ever, it comes to Colorado at a difficult time in its history.
Music director Christoph Eschenbach, who will lead two of the orchestra’s concerts in Vail, decided in October not to renew his five-year contract reportedly because of a troubled relationship between him and the musicians.
To make matters worse, Eschenbach has been upset at how the orchestra has handled his impending departure. In June, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, he used words such as “amateurish” to describe the management of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Orchestre de Paris, which he is leaving as well.
“Just as you thought the Christoph Eschenbach era of the Philadelphia Orchestra couldn’t achieve wider extremes of artistic distinction and behind-the-scenes discord, it does just that,” Inquirer music critic David Patrick Stearns wrote on June 3.
Kesselman tried to steer clear of these difficulties in a recent interview, responding to a question about Eschenbach’s relationship with the orchestra this way:
“That’s a tough one. I want to be careful what I say. I don’t want to insult anybody. The best way I can put it is: It depends on who you talk to.
“But I’ll tell you this, my opinion is that the orchestra has played great concerts under Eschenbach no matter what people’s opinions of what’s gone on (have been.) I’ve heard some fantastic playing.”
Whatever the musicians’ view of Eschenbach might be, Kesselman said their pride will not allow them to give anything but their best once the downbeat is signaled.
In February, the orchestra announced that Charles Dutoit, a veteran conductor who left the Montreal Symphony in 2002 after a flare-up with that orchestra, will take over an interim position of chief conductor and artistic adviser in September 2008. He will hold the post for four years as the hunt for a new music director is undertaken.
Undercofler said the orchestra is formulating a search plan and beginning to contemplate what type of music director makes sense.
“And that’s no easy task,” he said.
The Philadelphia Orchestra has struggled financially recently, but Undercofler said it has balanced its budget the past two years. And he anticipates the ensemble being in the black when this fiscal year closes in August.
At the same time, the orchestra has boosted its endowment to $200 million. That might sound impressive, but Undercofler said the fund needs to be larger if it is to help sustain an annual budget of about $42 million.
“So I would say the overall financial health is OK and improving,” he said. “All major symphony orchestras, the 52-week orchestras, have a real challenge in terms of finding a sustainable model, and part of that model includes how you manage your summers.”
That’s where the Vail residency comes in. According to John Giovando, executive director of Bravo!, the festival is paying $855,000 to bring the orchestra to Colorado.
Kesselman, who was part of a group of orchestra officials and members who scouted the festival last year, said the musicians are looking forward to the orchestra’s residency.
“I hadn’t been out West since 1980,” he said. “I’m excited about going out there and playing music again. I’m looking forward to getting out of a hot, sticky Philadelphia.”
He said musicians will take full advantage of their time off, and some are bringing their families. But no one is forgetting the trip’s central focus.
“Make no mistake, it’s not a vacation,” he said. “You still have to perform. You have to be ready to go. There’s a couple of days off, but it’s definitely work.”
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost. com.
| Philadelphia Orchestra
CLASSICAL MUSIC|Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail; 6 p.m. Saturday, Christoph Eschenbach, conductor, Marisol Montalvo, soprano; 6 p.m. Sunday, Eschenbach, conductor, Erik Schumann, violin; 6 p.m. Monday, Rossen Milanov, conductor, Jon Kimura Parker, piano; 6 p.m. Thursday, Hans Graf, conductor, Jonathan Biss, piano; 6 p.m. July 13, Graf, conductor, Karen Gomyo, violin, and 6 p.m. July 14, Milanov, conductor, New Mexico Symphony Orchestra Chorus.|$23-$84 |877-812-5700 or.
